Using Teamwork to Overcome Tough
Conditions and Achieve Your Goals
Guy D. Gruters, a former F-100 fighter pilot, will open the general session with
a keynote address presenting lessons learned during the more than five years
he spent as a P.O.W. in a North Vietnamese Communist Prison Camp and on his
more than 400 combat missions flown in South and North Vietnam before being
captured, as well as his own post-combat business experience.
Tuesday, April 16
8:00 a.m. – 9:20 a.m. ~ Open to all registered attendees
Guy was awarded more than 30 combat medals, including two silver stars,
two distinguished flying crosses, two bronze stars for heroism, and two purple
hearts. His fighter aircraft was shot down twice over North Vietnam. He was
rescued by Jolly Greens after the first and captured after the second. The
suffering in prison camp was intense 24/7, year after year, without any end in
sight. Six out of seven men in Guy's situation were tortured to death or killed
in one way or another by the Russians and North Vietnamese during those
agonizing years. Upon returning to the United States, Guy was a successful CEO
of a small computer business for 13 years, then director and VP-MIS for billiondollar corporations. Guy and his wife, Sandy, who waited faithfully for six years
until his return, raised seven children and had 25 family moves throughout the
U.S. during those years.
In his keynote address, Guy will describe the various aspects of those combat
and prison camp experiences, ranging from the specific conditions of his
imprisonment to individual tales of heroic courage and leadership.
"There is an absolute need for teamwork in the corporate
environment in order to reach the common corporate
goals which have been set."
~ Guy D. Gruters
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